Brennan: Mayor Bloomberg must call off marathon

Oct. 31, 2012
|

An entrance to Central Park at 59th Street, along the New York City Marathon course, is closed off on Wednesday with all city parks shuttered in the wake of this week's historic storm. / Beth J. Harpaz, AP

by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

by Christine Brennan, USA TODAY Sports

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has decided correctly that there should be no NBA game Thursday night in Brooklyn. But he still is going ahead with Sunday's New York City Marathon, a stunning decision that grows more confounding and unseemly by the hour.

As another New York City hospital was being evacuated Wednesday afternoon, and as millions in New York and New Jersey confronted an overwhelming number of troubles and tragedies brought on by the worst storm to ever hit the East Coast, New York's leaders are shockingly, unbelievably, moving ahead with one of the most logistically challenging sporting events in the world.

This is just what a city reeling from a once-in-a-lifetime storm doesn't need: a massive road race crossing through five boroughs that usually attracts 47,000 runners and 2 million spectators and requires 8,000 volunteers, 1,000 staff members and hundreds of police and other city workers and services. It's an unnecessary distraction coming at the worst time for the city and the region.

Whatever Bloomberg's reason to move forward -- to show the world that New York is bouncing back from Hurricane Sandy, to boost the spirits of those suffering, to not lose the millions of dollars the race generates for the city and its businesses -- it's the wrong reason.

As the National Guard is rolling into Hoboken, as the subways and airports and schools are still closed and the city cannot even handle all the cars that are trying to move through it, it's baffling that a mayor who usually handles terrible situations with such aplomb would not immediately shut down a non-essential sporting event.

This is absolutely no time to put on a marathon. Never has a sporting event been less important. Postpone it, reschedule it, cancel it for this year. The runners and fans will not only understand, they'll likely agree, if not immediately, certainly over time.

It's natural to believe that an event like this can have a similar uplifting effect as the marathon held in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001. But the two situations are far from parallel.

The 2001 Marathon was held a full 7½ weeks after the tragedy of 9/11. Can you imagine anyone suggesting that it be held in the same week?

Of course not. It would have been wrong then, and it's wrong now, especially because Hurricane Sandy particularly affects the very infrastructure and services that marathon runners require to get to New York and get around town once they are there.

To watch Bloomberg's latest news conference, with its long litany of problems and issues facing New York, is to be completely baffled by his unwillingness to postpone this race.

"Many people's lives were turned upside down by the storm," Bloomberg said poignantly, continuing to mention those who had lost their lives and the loved ones they have left behind.

He gets it. But, then, why doesn't he get this? If Sunday's marathon takes even one police officer from where he or she is truly needed because of the storm, it would be an additional tragedy in a city that needs no more.